Hybristophilia
by galaxian gal
Summary: After living a prolonged daydream with Azula, Ty Lee alone has to face the music of a highly publicized sex scandal and the tribunal that will decide her fate. — Autumn Tyzula Week 2015. Canon-Compliant. Complete.
1. and lo

A/N: **Some Quick Facts About This Fic  
Chapters: **7  
 **Pairing:** Azula x Ty Lee  
 **Rated:** M for sexual content, sexual themes, strong violent references and moderate language.  
 **Notes:** It's Tyzula Week, y'all. I'm psyched. I have another entry too, since I wrote two and couldn't decide which one I liked better. The other is War of the [Tea] Roses, is a Modern AU, and has the opposite prompts.

* * *

 **Hybristophilia**

* * *

 _You know, at one time, I used to break into pet shops to liberate the canaries. But I decided that was an idea way before its time. Zoos are full, prisons are overflowing... oh my, how the world still dearly loves a cage.  
\- Harold and Maude -_

* * *

 **Chapter One:** and lo

* * *

 **I. Luck**

* * *

Ty Lee has been subjected to a multitude of invasive questions lately. She knows _why_ people are asking, and she can pinpoint exactly _when_ they started, but she is not quite sure _what_ they are getting out of it. Is there something particularly scandalous about her relationship?

Okay, well, other than the fact that it has _literally_ been called a scandal by the horrific expose and subsequent disaster when people found out.

But right now she is trying not to think about any of that. Right now she has just woken up and is in that carefree moment between dreams and life, and last night, she dreamt of collecting seashells on a beach, with waves crashing against the shore.

It was a world in which she had escaped her troubles, and she was not alone there, not for a moment.

Another shade of sunlight strikes against her retinas like an invasion. It is filtered by misty morning clouds, and she sighs, unwilling to get out of bed despite the foul taste in her mouth. She is finding it a bit difficult to remain optimistic while facing what she knows is coming today.

The invasive questions have multiplied nonstop. But now she has to answer them, and answer them asked by _world leaders_. And her _friends_.

It probably is her fault. She should probably take the blame, even though she doesn't want to. And, even if it is the last thing she wants to do, she has to face the music.

Ty Lee groans before forcing herself to sit up and brave the world, regardless of her scandal. The questions frustrate her when they come from the outside, but they consume her when they jab at her from within.

The situation is just... complicated.

[X]

Mai waits for Ty Lee outside of the gold and red doors to the Hall of Justice. She toys with her sleeves as she stands there, watching the public. The attendees to the trial most certainly are not just dignitaries and important world leaders; they look like the same type of people who look for every slip up Zuko makes, or who like to gawk at burning buildings.

"Do I look okay?" Ty Lee asks brightly and Mai halfheartedly looks her up and down.

"Are you going for sexy or innocent child? Because you're doing both and it's horrible," Mai comments flatly and Ty Lee pouts, examining her body and light pink outfit self-consciously. "You look like you're either starting your first day at preschool or a brothel."

"I _get it_. You only needed to say it once!" Ty Lee snaps and then covers her mouth with her hand. She waits for two breathless seconds before she sees that the public have not noticed. She must be lucky today.

Mai just sighs. "I'm doing you a favor. You got yourself in a mess and most people would just let you hang for it."

"You don't think they'll really...?" Ty Lee's eyes widen.

Mai almost says that it's a figure of speech before replying, "If you're lucky, you won't be executed." She turns to start walking inside. "Oh, and listen to me too. Listen to everything I say and you won't need luck."

Ty Lee wants to frown or snap at Mai, but she cannot afford to burn anymore bridges.

She has been doing too much of that lately.

[X]

Meanwhile, Azula sits in a dimly lit cell, waiting for this ridiculous ordeal to be over. A verdict, of course, and her fate is in the hands of a girl she would not trust to water her plants while she was out of town. She has no trial; she already had one and received exile years ago.

And, as she tries to keep herself occupied in the nauseating solitude, of all people, her brother shows up at her barred door.

"Good luck," Zuko says softly.

Azula scoffs, not meeting his eyes. She looks very sophisticated, very unlike a prisoner. Her lips are a little bit sunburned but not chapped to the point of looking pitiful. She is well dressed because she demanded that she be, giving her status as a political prisoner. Her hair is the one thing that makes Zuko uncomfortable; it is wavy because it has recently been unbraided.

"I don't need that," Azula says coldly and Zuko wishes she would look at him. "I guess our father was so wrong, huh? I'd like to revise his words: you were lucky to get all of your dreams, and I'll be lucky if I'm not executed in two weeks for the crime of being born."

Zuko swallows.

He lingers there for a moment, she says nothing more, and he can think of nothing more to say.

[X]

Ty Lee does not want to recognize anyone in the audience, but of course she does. In front of her are people both important and unimportant, and they all want to know _all about_ her _treason scandal_. But while many of them may have interest solely in the legal mishap, Ty Lee knows that indubitably, most of them just want to hear the lascivious details.

Zuko is sitting with representatives from the other three nations. They are across the room, and there are other streaks of four colors in different shades, like a watercolor painting that is super interested in Ty Lee's sex mistakes.

Mai is sitting beside Ty Lee, as well as a woman hired to control the public relations nightmare and an older woman who worked at the island who promised to vouch for Ty Lee and help back up any of her claims during this pathetic excuse for a _hearing_.

It isn't a hearing. . . it's a debacle.

It isn't in the interest of the Four Nations. . . it's in the interest of the hungry public.

It isn't a formal event. . . it's a _circus_.

She turns to Mai as the room begins to quiet. Swallowing, Ty Lee begins to panic and forget anything she was planning on saying. This is _bad_. Mai glances over her and sees that this is not going to get much better, and so she seizes control of the room with an oddly apathetic ease.

Mai clears her throat and announces unenthusiastically, "Ty Lee will answer your needlessly invasive questions about the apparently very interesting sex scandal now."

Ty Lee closes her eyes for a moment before the circus begins.

The first delegate is from the Water Tribes, and Ty Lee does not recognize him. He asks a very logical question and Ty Lee conceals her sigh of relief.

 _"When did it start?"_

Ty Lee takes a deep breath, and tries to think back to the beginning.


	2. the beast looked upon

**Chapter Two:** the beast looked upon

* * *

 **II. Sleepwalking**

* * *

 _"When did it start?"_

 _._

Most things really don't have an _it all began when_ , but Ty Lee supposes the entire mess begins when she first hears about Azula's sentence. Ty Lee thinks it was kind and very fair to give her exile, but it does little to allay the guilt simmering within Ty Lee's stomach.

She got off freely, and Azula was punished; Zuko said it was unfair, and he knew it, but he had such pressure. Ty Lee is not sure if she believes him or not, and hates herself for it.

And for the thousandth time, "It's just exile; it's not that bad. I'm sure she's happy," Zuko insists, although he looks uncertain why he is trying to explain himself. He does not know why Ty Lee cares so much.

"That's a lot better than prison." Ty Lee touches her lips, the thoughts and images in her head difficult to decipher. _But I should have gotten this too,_ she cannot help but think.

"It's still a prison," Zuko says reflexively before realizing how stupid it was. "But it has way more space and a nicer view. And a full staff and a bar too, probably."

Zuko takes a deep breath. It _is_ better, no matter how guilty he and Ty Lee both feel.

He did a nice thing for Azula, or, at least, the _right_ thing in _both of_ their eyes. Isolation never bothered the princess; she liked very much to be alone.

"And is she okay?" Ty Lee whispers and Zuko makes a funny face.

"Probably. I'm not a decent judge of that." Zuko swallows. "I'll find out for you.

Ty Lee smiles faintly, wistfully and the feelings inside of her are soft and indescribably.

It is those feelings that begin to consume Ty Lee's thoughts.

[X]

Ty Lee likes going home to the Fire Nation. At first, she used to only go back there for loathed holidays and family events she couldn't get out of and it made the entire country feel like a horrid reminder of a family she left behind. But then she began to spread her wings and soar, and go there for her own reasons.

It is that independence that makes her certain that she can go visit Azula.

Or, okay, maybe the bar is just closing and she has to be carried out because she does not want to leave. She feels brighter than the sun, but she is quite high and probably should not be making such important life decisions. Not that Ty Lee should be making important life decisions any time in the first place.

She is very far from sober when she is curled on Mai's couch, remarking again and again about how fuzzy her blanket is and about how it feels like safety and home. And then her giddy, carefree self just crumbles like it never existed.

Mai stares at it with no idea what to do. She has no planned reaction for that.

"I want to go see her. Take me to see her, Mai. Please," Ty Lee says softly.

Well, Mai and every sane person knows that when someone can't even walk and has spent most of the night telling everybody she can find how much she loves them and is higher than the Western Air Temple probably should not be taken very seriously. . .

But: "Yeah. Yeah, I don't see what's stopping you."

 _Except the fact that you're going to hate it the minute that you do. Oh, and the fact that you decided to go and fucking try to elope with her, but how could anyone think there might be something wrong with you visiting?_

Mai expects that Ty Lee will have given up her desire in the morning, but it seems to be the only thing she has not forgotten. It seems to be the only thing she has not forgotten in a much longer span of time than a single blacked out night. It can be managed.

It can be managed, but Ty Lee will disappointed.

[X]

 _"And you just forgave her enough to do this," continues the representative, interrupting Ty Lee's stumbling and stuttering attempts to recount her first journey to Azula's exile._

Forgiveness was not on the itinerary. Ty Lee never planned on it, and she mostly only went there because she was

Ty Lee considered her days there to be both painful and relieving. It is a weird mix, but she is not complaining about it. She likes the sea breeze, and the freedom here, and just the casual nature of not having anything to worry about except for the countless armed guards and invisible bars.

But Azula has no desire to interact with her.

"You can leave, of course," says the head of security for the zillionth time. "She... I think she wants that."

"No," Ty Lee snaps. "No, she _doesn't_ want that. She just..." _probably thinks I'm a traitor again._

Ty Lee does not intend to forgive _Azula_. She wants Azula to forgive her.

The seashells she brushes the sand off of are the romantic gifts she never knew. The times she sits outside of Azula's door until her legs are numb and manages to have a little conversation out of her are the dates that she never managed to ask to go on.

And Ty Lee gets something better than vague responses and lack of care after a few days that seem like much longer.

"Your days cannot possibly be that interesting," Azula declares, her voice much louder and more certain than before.

"What do you mean?" Ty Lee asks honestly, trying not to sound too excited.

"The only reason I talk to you is because you somehow always manage to _lead_ with something much more interesting than a boring _hello_ or _how was your day_. You're not exactly the most intelligent person, or the type to be creative beyond outfit composition and ways to top your flakiness. How do you do it?" Azula says and that is the most she has spoken to anyone but herself in a long while.

"That's how I talk to people I like. I mean, _no_ , I mean people, _I like_. I mean, yeah, right now you're in prison for war crimes, but I'm used to going after girls like you. And girls like you are gorgeous and intelligent and totally never scared to get what they want. Girls like you can pass up even someone as hot as me just because I'm too boring when I say hello."

"So, it's a pick-up artist deal?" Azula is... laughing.

"No, it's a dating strategy, princess. A dating strategy in order to lie to very sexy, intelligent and perfect women in order to get them to go out with me." Ty Lee grins, because she thought Azula hated her. She thought Azula hated her so much.

"Well, I haven't dropped you at _hello_ , have I? I am intrigued, and I am currently a _captive_ audience," Azula says and waits for Ty Lee to laugh. And she does, right when she is supposed to without a half-second of hesitation. "So, give it your all."

"I miss you and I'm really sorry it ended that way," Ty Lee whispers, knowing she is ruining the gentle humor between them. "I'm so extremely insanely sorry."

Azula does not respond.

 _Of course_.

[X]

Ty Lee dreamed the night before she came here, after a day spent nursing a hangover that could destroy worlds, about a time and place in which she had just _escaped_. There isn't anything bad in her life she is running from and there never has been. But she always just wanted to go away to someplace perfect.

To Someplace.

Ty Lee sleepwalks the night she first manages to get a response from Azula. Or maybe she doesn't, okay? Maybe that is a complete and total lie but she refuses to admit that in trial or to anyone at all.

She winds up pacing in the living room, and sinking onto the sandy floor to stare at the ceiling.

"Have you died?" asks a familiar voice above her and Ty Lee jerks to a sitting position, smashing her knee into her chin on the way up. Azula smirks.

"No. I was just... sleeping." Ty Lee is sweating, and not just from the tropical heat.

"Of course. And why exactly are you sleeping in the middle of my floor?"

"Why are you standing in the middle of your floor?" Ty Lee snaps before frowning and hugging her knees to her chest. She looks up, and Azula does not look nearly as bad as she was the last two times she was imprisoned.

"It's my floor. You are an unwelcome guest. And I asked you a question," Azula purrs and Ty Lee gulps.

"I... sleepwalked here," Ty Lee says. "I do that all the time because I get really hungry when I sleep and stuff. And so I eat stuff in my sleep."

She did that when she was a kid, and so it's not a _whole lie_.

Azula cocks an eyebrow. "I am in the middle of my floor because I wake up every hour from my excruciating nightmares."

Ty Lee does not need to be told that. Ty Lee has known that for so very long. Ty Lee has known that since they shared a bed for two years as a pretend married couple before their castles in the sky were smashed into the ground by reality.

"Will you go for a walk with me? An _awake walk_ on the beach?" Ty Lee asks, pushing herself up with a tiny flounce.

Azula shrugs. "If you mysteriously drown, I'm using the sleepwalking excuse. You said it yourself."

Ty Lee thinks Azula is just screwing with her.

* * *

 **III. Daycare**

* * *

They walk together on the beach, and it's really beautiful.

Ty Lee is not sure why the staff trusts her, but she supposes it is because Azula responds to her well. It's a bit like babysitting but nonstop, but Ty Lee would rather it be the other way around. She kind of wishes Azula would kidnap her again and have to care for her with... sex and murder and stuff. So really not like any daycare anyone should go to.

"I think I'm a mountain person," Azula remarks, her lip contorted into a snarl.

"That's, uh, probably why we..." _lived in the mountains_. Ty Lee changes her mind about making reference to the past, but Azula refuses to let it slide.

"Of course, when I kidnapped you," Azula spits and Ty Lee rubs her arm in shame. Her shame is so _cute_ , like a puppy who tore up the sofa instead of a woman who destroyed Azula's life more than once. "Because kidnappers so regularly try to play house."

"I think they do," Ty Lee states before remembering herself again. She glances at the crystal clear constellations in the cloudless sky. "I always dreamt of a kidnapper. You know? Like taking me and making me marry them. Like you. Oh, I always wanted you to..."

Ty Lee does not finish that sentence, because Azula looks the dark kind of entertained.

"So, those stars are amazing. Do you like them?" Ty Lee asks sweetly. "Do you go outside, actually?"

"I go outside. Just not on the beach. I bend best in that behind the house place," Azula says and Ty Lee shrugs wordlessly and desperately looks through the chilly oceanic night for anything to spark a conversation about.

Ty Lee moves to touch the beautiful black sand, but her finger instantly protests from the sharp pain. In an airy, girlish voice she covers up with, "The sand here is weird. I was gonna draw maybe like our names but it's weird sand."

"It's volcanic." Azula is glacial.

"All Fire Nation sand is." Ty Lee is trying too hard.

"It's sharper here. You can't draw anything in it." Azula is trying too hard to look like she is ot trying at all.

"But that's one sand castle that would punish anybody who tried to crush it." Ty Lee giggles and Azula does not have any idea why this fool is still here. If Azula were not so _bored out of her mind_ and did not have the knowledge that no one else was ever going to visit her for the remainder of her life, she would probably try to get rid of Ty Lee.

And definitely not because she misses playing house.

No, because playing house with Ty Lee was basically daycare and not false marriage. If she _really_ kidnapped Ty Lee, she would have just buried the girl alive because of the effort and frustration taking care of her like a little girl was.

Azula does not have feelings for her.

"Yeah," Ty Lee says and she looks out. She looks towards the Fire Nation and feels anger and fear and resentment in her gut.

Because she has made shackles by trying to get free. That might just be a bad thing.

"You want something out of this other than your own fucking guilt about getting me sent here," Azula says bluntly, feeling _assaulted_ by the air here and _exposed_. "Tell me what it is before I have to force it from you."

Ty Lee very openly says, "Regret, I guess. There's no starting over and there aren't new beginnings. I can't just restart my life and pretend things didn't happen. So. . . I just keep on going. This place didn't _call_ to me. It _screamed_ until I couldn't _not_ come."

"That screaming was certainly me torturing these horrible staff," Azula says bitterly, her arms crossed over her chest. Her nightgown was not made for this, and she has been wearing it for a long time. The salty wind makes the sleeves fall down her pale arms and expose her breasts.

"Wanna go for a walk?" Ty Lee offers and Azula shakes her head. "Please."

"I'm not a pet or little child you are caring for. I am a dangerous criminal."

"In your dangerous criminal... summer camp?" Ty Lee giggles but Azula does not laugh. "Boarding school. Daycare? Uh... _vacation home_ , okay?"

"I don't know why you try." Azula is silent.

Forgiveness is not on her agenda.

Ty Lee does not know if she forgives Azula, or if Azula is ever going to forgive her, but she is not going to take the easy road and leave just because it is not the fantasy of redeeming her old love and then making out.

Not the fantasy of pretending she can go back to the beginning.


	3. the face of beauty and

**Chapter Three:** the face of beauty and

* * *

 **IV. Theft**

* * *

The Water Delegate sits down and Ty Lee does not think she has ever felt so relieved in her entire life. His question about how it all begun was a decent primer, and Ty Lee quickly answers simpler questions thrown at her.

The ones about the previous trial for her crime spree, kidnapping, the murder of her husband and the fact that she for some reason went back into Azula's arms after her 'heartbreaking' testimony about having her life and husband stolen from her by the horrible ghost who haunted her nightmares for years beforehand.

The ones about her time on the island, about the castles in the sky she and Azula built like fools and the glass castle they lived in despite the risks.

But, of course...

"I'm unclear on exactly what made you stay with her after she had kidnapped you and held you against your will," one of the Fire delegates asks with a likely healthy amount of skepticism in her voice.

"Well..." Ty Lee twists her sweaty hair around her finger and glances at Mai over and over before realizing she likely will not get a very helpful expression. "Well, it wasn't really what I would call a _kidnapping_."

"You called it a kidnapping in the original court proceedings," the delegate interrupts, clearing her throat pointedly.

"Well... _yeah_ , that's true and stuff..." Ty Lee grimaces and then, before things get out of hand, launches into her story again.

* * *

 _"Was it really a kidnapping?"_

"Love is crazy because it was made with us in mind," Azula remarks with a very self satisfied smirk.

Ty Lee stares at her and realizes the fact that _yes they both are criminally insane and Ty Lee has just been pretending_. "Yeah..." Ty Lee breathes. "I guess true love always includes hiding a mutilated corpse at some point."

Neither of them laugh, but Azula is fairly certain that Ty Lee was trying to make a joke.

They are standing by the edge of the water, on a salt-stained and ocean-soaked stone perch. Ty Lee wants to say that this was against her will, that she had no choice. But she cannot, because she thinks she might have desired for all of her fears to come true.

For so long, Ty Lee knew Azula was _there_. Azula was _haunting her_ and there was no relief. All of Ty Lee's friends told her to move on, but she absolutely could not. She wanted to believe it was because she always feared Azula.

But it was because she loved her. And there they are, Ty Lee finally liberated from the chains that an awful man forced around her, and the chains she forced around herself have been turned into a wall of security, safety and the warmth of Azula's lips against hers.

It may have not been a kidnapping, but it was definitely a murder.

* * *

Azula paces, because there is not much else to do.

She paces and paces and paces and paces ceaselessly. Ty Lee has stolen her freedom yet again, of course. _Of course_. Ty Lee stole her heart, stole her life, stole her freedom, stole her _throne_ if Azula goes back far enough in the list of all the Ty Lee has taken. But the list of what Ty Lee has given is much longer.

And, well, Princess Azula hates her for that.

Azula hears light footsteps pattering down the hallway, and the heavy ones of guards behind them. Not Zuko; he cannot be sneaky for the life of him. The trial has been going on for at least two hours. Princess Azula looks up and sees that this has to be a break, because Ty Lee is standing in front of her, looking so ridiculous in her formal clothes.

Well... Ty Lee looks ridiculous no matter how she dresses. Good thing she looks so lovely without clothes on.

"Hi," whispers Ty Lee, and she sounds fairly taxed. Azula does not think that bodes well for the fate of her life. Magnificent. It has to be Fire Lord Zuko's greatest act of cruelty to force _Ty Lee_ to speak in a trial on Azula's behalf, and leave her derelict in a _cell_. "It's going really great and awesome. I'm sure you're going to get off just fine."

Ty Lee grins encouragingly, but it quickly falters when she bursts into wailing tears. Azula does not move; she refuses to show how nauseated that makes her feel. No, no, no, no she is _not_ going to die over this.

"Our last trial did not go so well. Given that you agreed to testify _against_ me," Azula says coldly and Ty Lee frowns.

"I don't need a reminder, okay? I thought we got over that on the island."

Azula rolls her eyes. "It's not as if I ever forgave you... for anything, actually. It's your fault that I committed the murder that started all of this. He wasn't _my_ husband."

Ty Lee's lower lip trembles more prominently now, but Azula refuses to apologize.

"I just wanted to tell you that I love you, and that the day you stole me away from that... from my life, was the best day ever," Ty Lee says quietly and Azula takes a deep breath.

"How about you steal the keys to this cell and break me out of prison again?" Azula breathes and Ty Lee averts her sparkly eyes.

Azula thought so.

[X]

The sexual aspect of the act of treason has been the fixation of the public from the beginning. Ty Lee supposes that she and Azula do have a certain sex appeal, and Ty Lee knows from experience that there is something infatuating and arousing about the sick, cold, sexy nature of a psychopathic tyrant.

And so, Ty Lee is utterly unsurprised when the next _most important_ question asked of her outside of quick little details is, "Was she... _that_ good?"

"So good in bed that I was willing to commit treason?" Ty Lee asks shrilly, wringing her hands beneath the table. "It wasn't about that. It was... just crazy love."

No one is buying it.

* * *

 _"Was she..._ that _good?"_

The middle parts are fuzzy. Ty Lee does not remember them because they all seem the same. It takes repetition. Routine. It takes sixteen hours of a day trying and not stopping trying in order to just keep going and keep forcing it with Azula, but she doesn't stop.

Eventually, they do have a routine. It is an okay routine, which lets Azula disappear when she likes, and Ty Lee have time to herself so that she does not go insane too, and then they kind of have dinner together and Azula does not make for the nicest small talk, but it is nice.

Azula thinks Ty Lee wants to fix her. Ty Lee wants to fix herself.

But all of those grand desires of healing wounds and redemption disappear the night that friendship becomes lust. Azula does not coerce Ty Lee, but she _is_ the one who begins it. Probably. Ty Lee thinks she had the feelings in her for a long time, and she was looking for an excuse for them to come out.

It is nighttime, and Ty Lee creeps into Azula's room after the night patrol begins and they can have time to talk. Their conversations never stray to asylums or betrayals or the past or the future. Just the present, and they do like it that way.

But not tonight. Tonight _real_ things come up.

"I do think I missed you," Azula says with a detached expression and hollow voice. "I did always think of you as... something that was stolen from me forever. But perhaps I knew you would come back."

Ty Lee doesn't want to answer. Because that's a horrible way of thinking.

Azula clearly does seem to think Ty Lee is her little pet or trinket, but the attachment is real and Azula _needs_ Ty Lee. And Ty Lee _needs_ Azula, because being special and having the full attention and desire of someone like _Azula_ is a sensation that nothing healthy can replace.

"I want to come back, or I would've left. So... maybe you should steal me back," Ty Lee says, closer to the bed, closer now. "That sounds even hotter than last time."

Azula smirks. It has been much too long.

She thinks she might have forgotten what this feels like.  
Ty Lee falls onto her bed and Azula is on her knees beside her. Azula slowly slips her hand inside the sand-flecked summer dress and touches what she has lost. What she found again and needs to return to the proper owner. Ty Lee moans messily, her stomach contracting under her touch. Azula feels as if she has the power, and her exile suddenly feels less like a feeble and inglorious existence and more like the final fortress of a fallen empress. Ty Lee seizes her neck and pulls her into a kiss, nearly snapping Azula in half with the force, and that does not kill Azula's power rush for a minute.

Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.  
Azula kisses her neck, kisses her shoulders and raises her dress all the way up. Ty Lee tears it off of herself, frustrated with Azula's hesitance and slow rolling of the fabric. Ty Lee undoes Azula's hair with a painful fervor, and knits her hair in some of it as the rest falls into Azula's shirt in a way that Ty Lee cannot help but look at.  
When her hand cups Ty Lee's breast, it is not going to stop. It is too late to escape this island. It is too late to avoid what can't end well no matter what. It is too late to just forgive Azula and move on.

Ty Lee moans.  
The rest is history.

* * *

 **V. Cherries**

* * *

It is two weeks after Azula stole Ty Lee's past and future with one hot, hot, sexy night, and the cherries they are silently eating remind Ty Lee of the blood gushing out of burn wounds. They remind her of why she likely should be isolated on this island just like Azula has been.

Ty Lee sometimes can hear the screams inside of her head, and they refuse to stop tormenting her even if she stuffs her fingers into her ears and tries to convince herself that she had no hand in the crime. In fact, the memory of the brutality makes her feel so good inside that she thinks she may be a worse monster than her girlfriend. Her... _fiancee_ , if Ty Lee had not made such a mistake during the trial she was given about her crime spree with a war criminal who vanished years before.

"Do you think we could have a future?" Ty Lee asks as she bites down on one. The bittersweet nectar floods her mouth and a small drop trickles from her lower lip like blood on the maw of an animal.

But Azula is the one who looks predatory; Ty Lee cannot look away from that intoxication.

" _Here_? Yes, we can absolutely raise two children and a few pets on my exile island," Azula states coldly as she continues to neglect her gilded bowl of fresh fruit.

Ty Lee narrows her eyes at the scene. Azula is framed by an opulent _beach manor_ that she has to herself, with a staff and anything she could ask the immensely guilty Zuko for. But just because there are people assigned to keep her from leaving ─ from _escaping_ ─ she seems to think it might as well be the Boiling Rock.

"This place is nicer and much more stable than anywhere we lived before," Ty Lee says quietly, her heart fluttering with fear of retribution for disagreeing with Azula.

But the princess shrugs. "I like control. I have none of it here."

"It's kind of like early retirement."

"It's kind of like losing my freedom to someone I thought loved me." Azula punctures one of the cherries with her sharp nail and the red on her ivory skin reminds Ty Lee of the history of violence that surrounds her true love.

"Do you still want to marry me?" Ty Lee asks and Azula looks about to answer when they are interrupted by the sound of the doors opening.

Azula perks up, curious as to who on Earth would be visiting her _here_.

Fire Lord _Zuko_ , of course.

Ugh.

Ty Lee rushes to greet him, trying to forget her worries and regrets about Azula.

[X]

That night, Ty Lee dreams of she and Azula's children. It is not possible physically, but dreams are not what anyone would call scientifically accurate. But it was not a sweet dream of a family and happy ending; it was a nightmare.

The children were gruesome, distorted and frightening. She wakes up coated in cold sweat and wondering how she could have gotten into this situation.

She can hear Zuko and Azula in the living room still.

This is... this is _not okay_.

Ty Lee is going to do something about it if it is the last thing she does.

* * *

 **A/N:** There's one more chapter left, and I'm going to post it in 4 - 6 hours. I got really behind because I was distracted by a newfic based on my other Tyzula Week entry and a Halloween oneshot I've been working on since early October. But I've got this all ready to upload :D


	4. beauty stayed his hand

**Chapter Four:** and beauty stayed his hand

* * *

 **VI. Denial**

* * *

"It didn't go well, Ty Lee," Mai says after twelve torturous hours at the whims of the tribunal.

Ty Lee _knows_ that. Ty Lee _knows_ that she has just screwed both she and Azula over to the point of no return, no matter how hard she tried. She is sweating, and she feels like sitting down and crying, but Ty Lee has to deny all of that and continue to press forward. Accepting her defeat is not an option.

She remembers the moment on that sharp, pointy beach when she decided that she and Azula should run away together. That their castles in the sky were completely reachable, if only they had the guts to climb up the dangerous trees to reach them. But the branches snapped from under them, and only now do they feel the worst of the fall.

The worst like Azula's potential death and Ty Lee's potential life imprisonment.

No... not potential. _Imminent_. Imminent is the word Ty Lee keeps thinking of even though she is trying to keep herself happily contained within denial.

 _"Hey Azula?" she says._

 _"What?" The princess does not sound amused, and she has that sharp volcanic sand in the palm of her hand._

 _"Wanna run away?" Ty Lee asks as she looks out over that horizon._

 _"Fine." Azula scoffs and lets the sand fall from her open palm._

 _"I'm serious," Ty Lee insists fiercely. The sun is rising and Ty Lee knows that she want this._

 _"You're in denial. There's nothing you can do, and you know it. I am stuck here, and if you help remove me, you're guilty of treason. I doubt you can convince them that I kidnapped you this time," Azula says coldly._

But Azula played along in the end. Ty Lee wishes she had not made that suggestion in the first place. Because they really could have a life together. They really could have had it all on that island, and Ty Lee screwed them both over.

Azula has already heard about her trial when she sees Ty Lee entering. Ty Lee is not with guards this time, and she is sweating profusely. Princess Azula _wants_ to pity her, and she does _not_ want to hate her. But Azula no longer gets what she wants.

Ty Lee does not know what to say at first. She does not know if she would ever know what to say if she did not think of, "Hey Azula?"

"What?" Azula snaps with zero patience. She looks into Ty Lee's eyes that sparkle with tears and wants to feel remorse. She truly wants to.

"Wanna run away?"

"Fine." Azula rolls her eyes, shakes her head, and looks away.

"I'm serious," Ty Lee states, and she _means it_.

"You're in denial. There is nothing you can do," Azula replies, and she means it too.

"Oh, let's do it! Let's go on a romantic killing spree across the Fire Nation or Earth Kingdom or wherever you feel like! We make the rules, remember?" Ty Lee says as she remembers the sweet taste of Azula's lips and the beautiful madness that she surrendered to.

"I am uncertain if you noticed the bars between us but I don't think we make the rules anymore." Azula sneers and tries again to break Ty Lee's eye contact.

"Ugh. _You're_ the one in denial. Let's do it. Let's get married this time. Let's get married for real and argue about curtains again," Ty Lee says with an admirably delusional force.

"Sounds great. Mail me the itinerary." Azula walks into the shadows of her cell and does not reemerge.

Ty Lee pretends that everything is fine.

* * *

 **VII. "No, no. It wasn't the airplanes. It was beauty killed the beast."**

* * *

Ty Lee scrambles because she does not have much time. She needs to find something, anything, to prevent the execution that Zuko keeps apologizing and apologizing about. There has to be a way to save she and Azula both.

It is their last night on Earth together, if Ty Lee fails.

She finds Iroh. They both find Azula.

[X]

"Right, because you only believe in second chances when they somehow benefit you!" Azula shrieks from behind the bars as Iroh refuses.

He couldn't help it. It was the right thing to do, and he knew it. They were young and in love, but he could not set them free and betray his nephew.

"That is not ─" Iroh does not have the time to respond with his reasoning because he can feel the static in the air and the shift in energy.

He can feel the lightning on Azula's fingertips.

Ty Lee can see so many people when Azula moves for this death blow. But it is not calculated; Azula is crying and Ty Lee is crying and Iroh is moving for a counterattack.

"Azula, please..." Ty Lee whispers. "Azula, please..."

She does not yell over the Agni Kai that has broken out at the drop of a hat in the prison corridor. She just whispers, but it is enough for Azula to hear.

They lock eyes in the flickering bright blue light and Azula releases the lightning. It angrily collides with the wall on the other side of the room, and a flash of red fire moves to retaliate against an attack that was not completed.

Azula stands down and steps back as Iroh reins in his flames.

"I don't want this to be how you last see me," Azula says and Ty Lee looks at her. "I mean, of course you find it devastatingly sexy. You think there's something very hot about murderers, don't you?"

Ty Lee whimpers. "Azula..."

"But going out in a fit of rage about this man is too ridiculous. Come here," Azula says, holding out a hand as Iroh watches tensely. "Come here _now_ , Ty Lee."

The ex-Kyoshi Warrior obeys, walking to stand in front of the bars. Their hands touch very slowly and the touch electrifies them both. Azula kisses Ty Lee fiercely on the lips, the hard, cold bars pressed painfully against her cheek.

"Azula..."

"Tell me about that ridiculous happily ever after you kept going on and on about. The one about living on an island with children."

"I want three," Ty Lee whispers.

"Two."

"Boys."

"Girls."

"Two, one of each," Azula murmurs.

"And I'd really like yellow wallpaper even though you hate it."

Iroh blinks away the tears in his eyes and decides that he will not let this be their last night on Earth together, as they expect it to be.

[X]

Zuko hears the news in the morning. He feels a certain rage within him, and then agony, and then just sadness. He knows those emotions too well, and he has to deal with them before the public demands answers about the two girls who died for love... or something like it.

Iroh would do anything to avoid this, but watching Azula's eyes on that particular girl who somehow did _something_ inexplicably powerful to slay the monster Ozai had made was burned into his mind. Zuko _could_ know that Iroh had fulfilled his promise to Ty Lee when the words tumbled from her lips to him and not the pit of crocodiles that were interrogating her. He _could_ but Iroh knows that his nephew would seek her with what he would presume to be her best interests at heart.

All the same, Iroh does know how harsh this lie will be on everyone else.

Zuko... Zuko weeps and Iroh struggles to keep his mind clear and remember what is important. Zuko weeps for bodies that are not really dead; Zuko weeps because he thinks his sister has killed herself, as he had feared for so long.

And Iroh feels monstrous for it.

"I'm sorry," Zuko whispers, and even the tears streaming from his eyes are not enough to make this up to people. "I'm sorry about what happened and if I could have done anything to stop it I would have."

"Zuko," Iroh whispers as his nephew stares at his feet with a vacant expression and glassy eyes. Zuko is silent until Iroh gives him _that_ look. "It isn't your fault."

"Whose fault is it then? The razors? The guards? Her head? What? I was the one who caused this." Zuko seems so certain, but Iroh is silent for a few brief seconds.

He should tell his nephew and everything inside of him _wants_ to tell Zuko. Seeing him suffering is one of the most painful sensations the retired general has faced; but he gave Azula nothing in her life save for his word right now.

It is the only way she will get her second chance, and so Iroh just says quietly, "It wasn't the razors, nephew; it was beauty that killed the beast."

That is not a lie. It never was.

 **End**


End file.
